Sunday, 28 April 2013

South Africa Diary - Joberg2c stage 2


11.30am Friday 26 April 2013

Its 11.30, we’ve finished racing stage 2, we’re showered clean, Dan the mechanic has cleaned, degreased and applied the Fenwicks lube, and now were chilling out in the shade waiting for lunch. All we have to do now for the rest of the day is relax and recover which is good news because today’s 91 kilometres of racing was hard work and tomorrow we have 130 kilometres to do.

Tim and me got separated somewhere within the first 10km’s as puddle terror took hold of the peloton. Puddle terror is something we see at most races, everyone slam on the brakes in an effort to avoid getting wet feet, it’s pretty funny really but can be quite dangerous when you’re riding in a tight bunch. As we got separated Tim ended up on the wrong side of the split as a lead group developed and pulled away, after a few kilometres I had to drop back to assist my team mate.

A puncture later on Tim’s front wheel dropped us from the 2nd group and left us with work to do. Just before the final feed around the 60km mark we bridged the gap to the 2nd group again and we then just tried to limit our losses to the leading group. We lost 5 minutes in the end but still finished 8th overall and 6th in category so pretty good considering. Just outside the money! We were the top Itec Connect sponsored team so it feels good to pay back some of their commitment to us.

There was some awesome singletrack today, the last 10 kilometres was all singletrack, it was just a shame we were too tired to really enjoy it. I’m glad I’ve got the Scott Spark full suss to ride, the trails and even the fireroads are really bumpy, Tim’s riding his hardtail and I’m sure he’s going to fatigue much quicker because of it.

Tomorrow hopefully we’ll have a smoother ride, I do wonder though how my legs will cope after today’s huge efforts. Anyway off to lunch now, the meals here at Joberg2c are amazing, we are being spoilt and really did have the best steak EVER last night. The race briefing last night was also good entertainment, the organisers really do just want you to have as much fun as possible.

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